Wasting your time with things I find interesting, amusing, or enraging. Reinke does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations

We can all do a self-inventory now of the attention we give our phones or other technological devices. We can confess to ourselves how much we let residual work infiltrate our personal lives. Don’t forget what I think is one of our biggest trip-ups in modern living: the penchant for mental chatter. Truth be told, how much time do we spend caught up in replaying a conversation from the previous evening, imagining multiple stressful scenarios that might take place when we confront a certain person about x, y, and z, worrying about what other people think of our outfit or hair today? Let’s face it, our modern disconnect is rampant distraction.

Can you imagine if Grok walked across the savanna perpetually lost in thought about his latest wardrobe experiment? (As if he ever saw his reflection anyway…) He wouldn’t last long enough for it to matter. For our ancestors, life was an exercise in continual hyper-vigilance. Not every second, but close. It wasn’t just the risk of becoming another creature’s dinner either. Attentiveness also meant watching for weather, catching migratory patterns, and deciphering water sources – just to name a few examples.

The Primal Connection is to be found in giving the moment your full attention. It’s about minding the difference between thoughtful deliberation or reflection and so-called monkey brain. It’s about throwing off the strangling self-absorption we trap ourselves in every day standing in line with our phones or with our mental chatter. See the people, places, and possibilities in front of you. Feed this “highly successful” habit by observing your loved ones – all the changes and uniqueness that’s right there to be appreciated. Go on a walk with the goal of finding at least a dozen things you’ve never noticed. Use mindfulness check-ins to remember to come down from the mental busyness and come back to center throughout the day.

*** end quote ***

It’s hard not to “multi-task”.

It’s not like we are computers.

And even when they “multitask”, there is a certain about of inefficiency in doing it.

I remember coding BALR 14,15, Using 15, with all sorts of saving and restoring. That’s all “wasted effort”. We used to carefully consider if the “overhead” was worth the “gain”.

Sitting just doing one thing. Fully engaged. With no distraction. Is the closest thing we get here on the dirt.

If you’ve ever been in “the zone”, it’s as if time stands still. (And, I’ve had some Theology lecture that proved the principle that Hell is real and unending!)

Good thing I have a team. Otherwise, I’d be sitting, guarding my “pirate’s chest” of gold coins. I don’t know what bias being a Gold Bug is, but I have it bad. The thieves in DC are robbing us poor folk blind. And, what’s worse, folks are clueless. Argh!

“We’ll see if I have the charm of my younger days and some beautiful young thing finds me young, thin, handsome, AND irresistible.”

… to my Russian co-worker, who wanted to schedule an early Monday meeting. She looks at me in her deadpan style mitt the thick accent and replies: “I C U. I schedule Monday meeting at 8!”.

After the rehersal dinner, as the Father of the Bride and I were leaving together, three “young” (30-ish) expressed graphically some interest. They must have been querying my “older” friend cause they couldn’t a been talking to me. Outside he and I got a lotta yucks out of that one. I have to go back to repentance again. I’m not sure who exactly came up with the very uncharitable comments — ‘Melanie Griffith” (our code for “Looks like a Working Girl”), “everyone is beautiful at closing time”, and particularly Not Zen like “that 1,000 mile journey can be seen on the your wrinkles”. And those were the bloggable ones.

At the reception, I got razzed about two female guests who expressed interest. One was just a “lost soul” and the other was on the hunt. Thanks to the Sister of the Bride’s Mother, who threw a key block to spring the running buck (me) to complete my run to the door. Yep, still got it. Yeah, I know. All it was, was that I was alive. ROFL!

And, thanks to the Husband of Bride’s Mom’s Sister, who thought it was hysterical to do something like “Hey have you met my friend John” every time “the tigress” cruised by our table. Glad to know my discomfort was SO entertaining. He was just paying me back for scaring him that my “reading” was really four pages long. He thought I was announce my run for Pope. It was a short reading that I reprinted and corrected. (Yeah, a fat old white guy injineer correcting spelling. What’s next? “CHURCH 10●19●62” wins a Pulitzer? More likely a “pull it sir; it blocking real books”!) Maybe I should HAVE read it as written originally from the Bride: “Don Ho Hot Love”! ROFL!!!

Sigh!

Oh well, on to work tomorrow. My Russian co-worker was correct. I’ll be back to the “fun” tomorrow.

If I survive the Beltway traffic?

# – # – #

I survived.

The paradigm shift: SOME women saw me as “available”. And, at least, two made no bones about it.

The meme shift: Gone are the days when I can just go to a wedding and relax. Now I know how the chicken feels being chased around the barnyard.

Thanksgiving prayer: Thank you Universe for not making me, or letting me, do a “face plant” on the way to or from that sky platform.

Occam’s razor (also written as Ockham’s razor, Latin lex parsimoniae) is the law of parsimony, economy or succinctness. It is a principle urging one to select among competing hypotheses that which makes the fewest assumptions and thereby offers the simplest explanation of the effect.

*** end quote ***

Or, as I like to say it, “KISS — Keep it simple, stupid!”.

I took some trash yday for being too erudite (That’s, for the intellectually challenged or those eddykated in a Gooferment Skrule, using de big wurds.) and making a joke at the expense of poor old Ockham and his razor or a German knife.

Tuff!

Grow up.

Stretch your paradigms and memes.

(Pair of dimes is how you perceive stuff. Your eyes can deceive you. Look in Johari’s box.)

(Meme, like genes for ideas. How you think about thinking. SOP’s for life. An idea that can spread from human mind to human mind. Like a fad, rumor, or (mis)understanding. Think MegaBall Jackpot craze, “pet rock”, religious beliefs, and concepts like “money”. Memes can be handy shorthand, like the United States Government, Alma Mater, political party, or the “Tea Party”. They can be false like “Social Security is insurance”, “Laws protect me”, or even that there is such a thing as “government”. They can be unprovable “God Exists”. Or obvious, “Law of Gravity”.)

I refuse to accept that using the correct word, even if it’s big, uncommon, or strange, is being pedantic, obtuse, or show offy.

Watching a YouTube video is a mess. You can figure out what the technical dimension the problem is. Users don’t have access to the diags necessary to tell where or what the problem really is. What’s worse one always has to be suspicious that either or both have their “thumb” on the scale. Verizon to sell FIOS or 4G. YouTube to extract payment from the ISPs.

2) YouTube software

Try resetting a video to someplace other than the beginning. Doesn’t work for me. But shouldn’t it DL the file to you so you can play it over and over. You shouldn’t need a utility or another site to collect it for you. Plus why can’t we have one open standard for video.

3) Assumption

You have to admire the innovation of these two Auburn guys, and one webmaster, for their ability to capture the essence of the inet and social media. Taylor Swift gets kudos for finding them, challenging them, and making the event. Of course, if I made 35M$ last year, I’d take a chance. Maybe not! It could have been a bust. So there was some risk in it for her. She could have been playing to an empty house. Not very likely. She could have leaked it to her fan base minutes before and I’m sure the tweens and teens would have packed the joint. I know I’d have gone. Everyone won. They got their hug; she got the buzz.

4) Make it happen

You have to admire these fellow’s ability to “instantiate” their vision. The Eastern philosophies always suggest that vision precedes actuality. These fellows demonstrated that principle. Or is it a meme? You have to visualize the end and the Universe will “make it so”. To steal a Star Trek line.

5) Noblese oblige

Taylor Swift exemplifies this meme. She could have, but never has, sat in her tour bus and counted her pennies. How to say one of her CPAs wasn’t doing this for her ( i.e.: “Taylor, do realize what this is going to cost you?” “So, how much is five million hits on YouTube worth in terms of paid downloads?”)? She seems propelled by human emotion. But buzz does translate to dollars, so she can be ‘frisky’. Knowing that the “buzz” is worth gazillions. That doesn’t diminish her. She really is an icon.

6) Fun

You have to be “hard hearted” not to enjoy the serendipity of the whole scenario. Other than a “young girl skirt” around some rowdy college students, one would be hard pressed to find a flaw in the whole video. Marginally, one can feel bad for the campus and her security people who had to make her safe. You can see the expressions on their faces that they were not happy on what should have been a sleepy afternoon. You have to wonder how the many folks who were “locked out” felt? Sorry, but I always look at the silent majority feels. I’d have been the 350+1!

# – # – # – # – #

I’m told the skirt is not that short. Guess it’s my Catholic school upbringing when the girls would roll down for school and roll up for dismissal.

Frank Scoblete: The simple truth about trend betting The simple truth about trend betting Scoblete says trend betting does not work in random games. You can’t get an edge over the house by betting for or against the trends you just saw. What happened in the past has no influence on what happens in the future.

*** end quote ***

He’s right, BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), he doesn’t address the paradigm (the perception) that human beings always see order out of chaos. So we see trends. If UGH the caveman didn’t he was some predator’s lunch. Look at those people who say the Devil’s face in the billowing clouds at the 9/11 attack. Our wetware is hard wired to see <synonym for excrement> that may or may not be there. And the trend is your friend.

So, it’s a meme that if you’re gambling, you can’t “beat the house”. That’s why we do money management.

And, when you find an advantage, like I did when I realized the Riviera’s new loyalty ticket machines gave a slot player a small amount of additional information about the history of the machine (i.e., on a three dollar slot, a loyalty reading of 1 or 2 to go on a machine where the last play was 1 or 2 dollars MEANT that the last player went broke. Did it always pay to play that machine? No, but I’d give it two spins $6 to hit. One of the few times I made a lot of money. I’d have to call Our Girl to come down and wait for the tax papers.

Argh! I was at Comdex and had to go back to work. I got back out there three weeks later and the system had been removed.

I bet the pros realized it and used it. The casino probably lost the pro’s action because the pros would wait patiently for the tourists to “prime the pump”. Casino mistakes are few and far between. Like the Fremont’s repeat roulette number bet.

But he’s right. Betting on an RNG trend is the path to poverty. I’ll still do it in the short run (i.e., jump in the grave).